Bringing Indigenous voices to the forefront: Documenting the experiences of the women from the Otomi/Tepehua region.

By Arantza Caudillo Alvarez

“No one takes the time to write about what happens here,” said one of my coworkers, expressing discontent with the lack of information about the Otomi/Tepehua region.

Anthropologists explored plenty of Mexico’s indigenous regions, including the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Chihuahua. However, many overlooked the mountainous home of the Otomíes, Tepehuas, and Nahuas in Hidalgo. Indigenous women from this region have faced historical marginalization. First, the Nahuas colonized the Otomi region. Then, the Spanish colonized them. Women stood in an inferior social position as a result of these colonization processes because many were raped and murdered for racialized and gendered purposes.

The Mexican state continues to neglect the region through its lack of infrastructure and basic human needs. Indigenous women still walk through a rougher path, as they face higher poverty rates than their male counterparts. I aim to document and describe how, despite this gender-based violence and socioeconomic disparities Indigenous women face in Mexico, Otomi, Tepehua, and Nahua women create multiple safe spaces where they find and cultivate agency and moments of freedom beyond these circumstances, where they engage in embroidery, religious practices, farming, markets, horticulture, and healing practices to create and sustain mutual support. My research will contribute to a larger conversation about decolonizing the social sciences, the effects of globalization in rural and indigenous regions, and the challenges indigenous women face because of their intersecting social identities.

Women from this region are becoming increasingly interconnected, yet ther.e are still some setbacks. While some already have a smartphone and use WhatsApp, many do not have access to a stable signal, wifi, or electricity. When physical newspapers were a thing, the region never formally had one! Thus, I hope to make a positive impact through my research by bringing the voices of the Otomi, Nahua, and Tepehua women to the forefront and in equal standing in an international arena. I hope their stories and experiences will better inform the social sciences and bring an intersectional perspective from the Global South to this Western-dominated field. I think bringing their stories closer to the FSU community would also count as an accomplishment, as college students would get more exposure to what it means to be an Indigenous woman from the Global South. I also aim to shed light upon the women’s needs in the region, such as access to decent healthcare, to encourage international actors to support the Otomi/Tepehua community and create solidarity